Recently, the above GIF has been appearing on numerous Japanese sites. Commenters have been criticizing the woman based only on this animated image. But what's going on? Time to delve deeper.

The incident happened recently at a game between the Yokohama DeNA Baystars and the Chunichi Dragons. The Baystars are owned by mobile game company DeNA. The Chunichi Dragons, of course, appeared in Mr. Baseball.

Here, you can see the full incident as a player gives a group of kids a ball as a present.

On
2ch, Japan's largest forum, the GIF that resulted from this incident was called "too cruel," giving people online a chuckle at what they thought was a ridiculous adult.

There have been other incidents of this in Major League baseball. Lots of them.

For whatever reason, an old clip of a woman yanking a baseball away from children in Houston is…
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But as
2ch internet sleuths had a closer look, they wondered if perhaps people were viewing this image wrong. That this is either the red-shirted boy's mother or a relative who reached in to help once the kid in the black t-shirt tried to grab the ball away. She was helping the kid, perhaps her kid, out. The little girl next to the mother and the boy in the red shirt might also be related.

Here, you can see the incident slowed down. Notice how the adult and the kid both jump up and down, as if to show someone they got the ball. Someone like a grandparent or a father or a friend?

If true, that still didn't stop 2ch commenters from then criticizing the adult for sticking her nose in a kiddy quarrel, even if it could've been for her kid—or jumping up and down after the ball was wrestled away from the kid in the black shirt, for that matter. That's the internet for ya!